Comprehensive Employment And Training Act Research Articles

Thirty Years of Changing Federal, State, and Local Relationships in Employment and Training Programs

There have been three major training programs in the United States in the past thirty years: the Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA)from 1962 to 1973, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)from 1973 to 1982, and the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)from 1982 to the present. MDTA was a categorical program, with service providersfiunded directly by thefederal government. CETA was a hybrid block grant program that gave local units of government substantial autonomy in administering the basic training component, but CETA also included categoricalprograms for specific target groups and for public service employment. Over time, CETA was increasingly regulated. JTPA is regulated more by the states and theprivate sector, and in 1992 amendments targeted the program more sharply and restricted activities that could be undertaken. Federalism in employment and training programs hasfollowed a course similar to other areas, with cooperativefederalism ending in 1978 being replaced by coercive federalism. In recent years, states have started a number of innovative programs.

The Political Failure of Employment Policy, 1945-1982.

This political history of US manpower training and employment policy from the 1946 Employment Act to the current Job Training Partnership Act attempts to analyze the failure of the US to adopt viable employment policies. Between these two landmarks of legislation lie the War on Poverty, attempts to create public service employment (PSE), the abortive Humphrey-Hawkins Act and the beleaguered Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Mucciaroni aims to trace the impact of economic ideas and opinions on federal employment policy. Efforts at reform, he believes, are frustrated by a culturally entrenched belief in economic liberty that restricts the role of government and holds workers themselves accountable for success or failure.

Organizational coordination between CETA and the job service: Implications for the 80s

The issues and problems of intergovernmental coordination between the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) and the Job Service (JS) has drawn considerable attention and discussion. The issues are examined in four ways: (1) What are the goal similarities between CETA and JS? (2) In what way does political feasibility impact upon attempts a t further coordination? (3) Are there examples of coordination between CETA and JS which indicate that coordination is possible, or, as a minimum, examples that warrant serious examination? and ( 4 ) What must occur to further coordination and/or move to a single delivery system? In general, it is argued that there is broad national goal congruence between CETA and Job Service; that is, both programs aim to secure rewarding and satisfying employment for job seeking clients in ways which benefit both job seekers and job providers in the most economical and productive manner, especially given the current era of cutback management. Although there are differences...

The Impact of CETA Programs on Earnings: A Review of the Literature

This paper reviews and assesses evaluations of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) programs. Most of the studies found that the programs raised earnings by $200 to $600 annually in current dollars. The programs were found to be more effective for women than men, and public service employment and on-the-job training were generally found to be more effective activities than classroom training and work experience. In spite of the broad overall agreement, the studies differed significantly in many of their specific impact findings. The nonexperimental nature of the data required the studies to make specific assumptions about selection procedures used to determine which individuals received training, and the results are sensitive to the specific measures adopted. Data limitation and the inability to adequately test the validity of selection processes assumed make it impossible to determine which studies modeled the process correctly.

Diffusion theory: A review and test of a conceptual model in information diffusion

The purpose of this study was to test diffusion theory in a study of the awareness, use, and diffusion of an innovation in a job environment of the working poor. In order to apply the theory, a modification of the definition of innovation was necessary. The innovation in this study was information, specifically, job information. The sample consisted of 50 women who had temporary employment as part of their enrollment in an urban Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. Findings revealed (1) some aspects of models of diffusion were more prominent than others in a study where the innovation is information, and (2) linkages could be made between models to give a clearer picture of the diffusion of job information. © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Diffusion theory: A review and test of a conceptual model in information diffusion

The purpose of this study was to test diffusion theory in a study of the awareness, use, and diffusion of an innovation in a job environment of the working poor. In order to apply the theory, a modification of the definition of innovation was necessary. The innovation in this study was information, specifically, job information. The sample consisted of 50 women who had temporary employment as part of their enrollment in an urban Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. Findings revealed (1) some aspects of models of diffusion were more prominent than others in a study where the innovation is information, and (2) linkages could be made between models to give a clearer picture of the diffusion of job information. © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Implementation of the job training partnership act: A field network process evaluation

This paper presents the early findings of a 2-year process study of the implementation of Titles IIA and III of the Job Training Partnership ACT (JTPA), the successor to the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). The study is a field network evaluation of the operation of the program in 20 randomly selected states and 40 Service Delivery Areas within those states. The methodology of a field network evaluation is also discussed.

Staying in the Game: the Reaction of Nonprofit Organizations To Federal Cutbacks

_N v 'ONPROFIT organizations comprise America's (Cornuelle 1965; Etzioni 1972; Levitt 1973; Nielsen 1979; Orlans 1980), is, that vast array of institutions and associations whose common characteristics are they are private, do not operate for profit, and are devoted to serving the general welfare not simply the welfare of their members or supporters (Nielsen 1979: 1). The interaction of the Third Sector with the other two sectors government and the economy exemplifies the flexibility, adaptability, and complexity of American pluralism (Nielsen 1979: 6). As consequence of block grant programs created the early 1970s, such as the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) grant and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a collection of private and semi-public groups and agencies [nonprofits] moved into full partnership with the national, state, and local administering federal (Kettl 1981: 366). By 1980, private nonprofit organizations received larger share of their total revenues from the federal government than from all private giving: $40.4 billion vs. $25.5 billion (Salamon and Abramson 1982: xvii). The need to better understand the dynamics of the linkages between the public and private sectors was recognized by Salamon his recent research on governmental-nonprofit interactions (1981, 1982). He noted in almost every policy sphere, Federal operations now involve complex collage of widely assorted tools [including subcontracts] mobilizing diverse collection of different types of actors to perform host of different roles frequently confusing combinations (Salamon 1981: 259). This has resulted program structure characterized by authority parceled chunks among number of different actors (public and private) which complicates the task of coordination and taxes the integrative institutions of governments (Salamon 1981: 262). Yet, as Salamon laments, there has been a virtual absence of systematic comparative work analyzing different tools or examining the changing forms of action as whole (1981: 263).

Federal job training programs and employment outcomes: Effects by sex and race of participants

This article examines the extent to which the program activity assignments of participants in federal job training programs affect their future employment prospects. We analyze the effects of three types of programs—classroom training, on-the-job training, and work experience—on the post-program employment outcomes of black and white women and men. The data are from the Continuous Longitudinal Manpower Survey of fiscal 1976 participants in the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Logistic regression and event history analysis are used to assess the likelihood of immediate employment upon leaving CETA and the rates at which participants enter and leave their first post-program spells of employment and nonemployment.

U.S. Employment Service: First 50 Years, 1933–1983

This article reviews some of the landmarks and trends during the first 50 years of the U.S. Employment Service. It was originally written as the introductory chapter of a longer paper, “The Occupational Information Needs and Functions of the Employment Security‐Job Service,” which was submitted at the request of the Occupational Coordinating Council, Washington, D.C., March 1980. The purpose of the chapter was to describe the role and functions of the Employment Service and to show how the service could become more relevant during an age of computerized employment service operations involving highspeed electronic communications and retrieval systems.Under the Reagan administration, much of the federal‐state employment service has been systematically dismantled. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) has been repealed and with it, large parts of the research, development, and counseling capacities have been wiped out. Only the great “supply side” depression of 1980–1983 saved the entire system from being demolished.

New Federalism Modified: Jobs and Highways in New York

The Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 (JTPA) and the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1983 (STAA) were intended in part to stimulate the American economy out of recession. Each law embodied a different approach to that goal and, hence, posed different implementation challenges to the states. JTPA was intended to decentralize decisionmaking and administration to the states, and to involve the private sector in state and local decisionmaking processes. Moreover, the level of federal aid was reduced below that available under its predecessor, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). STAA was intended to inject increased federal funds for rebuilding roads and highways. Its stipulation that states bring their standards for truck dimensions and routes into line with new national standards was a centralizing feature of the legislation. In examining responses of the states in 1983 to these laws, particularly New York, decentralization appeared to be on track in the early implementation of JTPA. The level of involvement of governors and, to a lesser extent, legislatures was higher than under CETA. The implementation of STAA revealed both decentralizing and centralizing features at work. Participation of the New York legislature in deciding how the increased highway funds were to be spent was much higher than before STAA, but conflicts between the national and state governments over the new national standards were resolved in favor of the national government.

The Impact of Nontraditional Training on the Occupational Attainment of Women

In this paper we examine the effect of nontraditional training on the occupational attainment of economically disadvantaged women. Using a logit model of occupational attainment, we found that women who received nontraditional training under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) were much less likely than their male counterparts to be employed in male-dominated occupations, and also received somewhat lower hourly wages. These results suggest that nontraditional training alone may not be an effective way of reducing the occupational segregation of low-income women.

Unemployment: Toward a Social Work Agenda

volved in efforts to promote employ ment-related legislation, such as H.R. 50—the Full Employment and Bal anced Growth Act of 1978 (originally known as the Humphrey-Hawkins bill)—and of plant-closure laws. Still others have participated in the design and implementation of employment and training services such as those under the Comprehensive Employ ment and Training Act (CETA). These activities of individuals need to be

Unemployment among black youths: a policy dilemma

tory in the United States, but they have seldom equipped workers for lifelong advancement in skills, earnings, and occupational mobility. Instead, most of these policies have focused on short term economic goals. Only in periods of low general economic activity marked by rising levels of unemploy ment has the federal government de veloped manpower measures directed toward helping people find work and improve their skills and earnings. For example, during the years of the Great Depression, which caused mass unem ployment, the administration of Presi dent Franklin D. Roosevelt undertook large-scale intervention in the labor market by creating jobs through the Public Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the National Youth Administration—all of which continued into the early years of World War II. And during the early 1960s, when unemployment reached the highest level since World War II, the administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson developed new manpower policies to meet the special needs of workers who were displaced by automation. These policies called for the training or re training of workers for new occu pational opportunities. One of the mea sures, the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962, shifted its focus from adult workers to youths because unemployment among the young, espe cially among young members of racial minorities in urban areas, had emerged as a major social issue and because the levels of unemployment among adult workers had begun to decline in 1963. Few contemporary social problems appear as intractable as unemployment among blacks, especially among black youths between the ages of 16 and 24. Some groups of young people have been served through a variety of man power programs instituted under the Manpower Development and Training Act and the 1964 Economic Opportu nity Act and finally brought together under the Comprehensive Employ ment and Training Act (CETA) in 1974. (See Table 1.) Some CETA programs, for example, the Job Corps, have strict Unemployment among black youths: a policy dilemma

Evaluating a human service program: Employing the judicial evaluation model

The emergence of adversarial models as an approach to formative and summative evaluations is gaining recognition among educational research professionals. The implementation of the Judicial Evaluation Model (JEM), as described in this article, is the first application to a human service employment and training program. Evaluation questions raised within the study were designed to assess the efficacy of linkage arrangements between the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) prime sponsors and education service providers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The four stages of the JEM and its application to CETA are discussed, the panel findings are reported along with noted pitfalls and strengths, suggested guidelines for implementation, and a few recommendations.

New Perspectives on Program Termination

Recently there has been a great deal of attention in government circles paid to program cutbacks, policy terminations, and, in some cases, the actual closing of official agencies. In some cases, the closing has involved a relatively small agency such as the Community Services Administration'; but in other cases, the closings of major organizations such as the departments of Energy and of Education have been under fire. The activities have occasioned a reconsideration of the earlier literature on policy termination.2 Such reconsideration has been going on not only in the United States but in England and Sweden as well.3 In the past, the policy termination literature has been concerned primarily with how to improve the efficiency of government programs and services.4 If, say, a job training program under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) was judged inadequate by some criteria, then analysts sometimes advised that it be cut off and another program created for job training; the acid test was the effective delivery of services. Writers on termination policy could talk about specific termination strategies, including how to make termination more palatable.5 But in large measure, these recommendations fell on deaf governmental ears. The occasional instances in which such recommendations were heeded-as when the B-1 strategic bomber program was temporarily cancelled by the Carter administration6-were too infrequent to do more than provide interesting case materials. Today, however, there is widespread agreement on the necessity of government cutbacks, retrenchments, and general reductions because of a declining resource base. The basic promise, here and abroad, is simply that there are insufficient funds to permit the continued growth of government services; nor is this condition thought to be transitory. The Swedish budget statement for 1980/ 81 states:

The Concurrent Validity of Self-Estimates of Abilities Relative to Criteria Provided by Standardized Test Measures of the Same Abilities for a Sample of High School Students Eligible for Participation in the Ceta Program

For a total sample of 258 high school students who were eligible for participation in the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), for the two subgroups of 108 males and 150 females, and for eight subsamples differentiated by sex and by four age levels (15, 16, 17, or 18), this investigation was concerned with determining the degree of relationship between scores on each of nine ability measures (the criterion variables) included in the standardized General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) and self-estimates by students of their level of ability in each of the same nine aptitude areas as those in the GATB. For the total sample not one of the nine concurrent validity coefficients was statistically significant, and for the subgroups of males and females, only one and two coefficients, respectively, were statistically reliable. Among the 72 validity coefficients for the eight independent subsamples of males and females differentiated by age level, only nine coefficients were statistically reliable—8 for females and 1 for males. Six of these coefficients involved measures of motor coordination, finger dexterity; and manual dexterity. With the possible exception of skills involving psychomotor coordination and precision, adolescents irrespective of age level appear unable to provide valid self-estimates of their standing in the same abilities as those provided by scores on a widely used standardized test.

In-school labour force status and post-school wage rates of young men

This empirical study includes four models of early post-school wage determinants of white and black young men in the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) Panel in the 1966 to 1971 period. Within each model, the focus is on in-school labour force status as a determinant of post-school wage rates. As such, the results are related to the joint employment and schooling legislative goals expressed in Title IV of the 1978 Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) reauthorization as a way to mitigate school to work transition problems of youth. The major result, found with ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression techniques, is as follows: in-school job holding, significantly and positively increases post-school wage rates relative to the youth who neither worked nor looked for work as a student (Model 1). For a white youth, this basic conclusion is similar even when the white sample is divided into poor and non-poor youths (Model 4) and by education level (Model 2). For a black youth, in-school job...

The Peripheral Worker: CET a Training as Imperfect Job Socialization

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the effect of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) on individuals who have participated in various employment and training programs. Particular emphasis will be, placed on determining the influence of the CETA experience on the work history of the CETA trainee. Our findings are derived from a series of open-ended interviews with selected trainees and a detailed questionnaire completed by former CETA participants, both conducted in Tennessee. A work history, which is a linear time record of a person's labor market experiences, education, and other economic activities, generally involves several stages: (1) preparation for a job through education, training, and socialization; (2) work experience gained from entry level jobs to attain the appropriate mix of personal and work characteristics required for most jobs; (3) access to a career ladder of increasingly more responsible and

C.E.T.A. personnel as a manpower resource for mental health agencies.

Historically federal monies for job training and public service employment were administered and allocated through catagorical programs. These programs were inefficient, overlapping, unresponsive to local needs, and expensive to administer. In 1967, there were seventeen separate federal employment programs each with their own administration, funding procedures and eligibility requirements. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) of 1973 (P.L. 93-203) was the proposed solution to these problems. This legislation transferred the control of a large portion of federal revenues for manpower programs to state and local jurisdictions. The state and local governments were given flexible guidelines for use of the money as opposed to dealing with a variety of categorical federal programs that may, or may not, have met local needs.